Yeah, I saw one message a picture and went "that's it??", But then discovered it has a view thread button and there's more hiding there. Such a bizzaire UI experience.
I really hate that new "feature" too. I don't get why anyone would want it.
Edit: I think I figured it out. I think it's supposed to make it easier to see replies to the linked/original tweet which you would otherwise have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to see. The problem is that they implemented it backwards. It should show the thread by default and give you an option to see the non-thread replies to the current tweet instead.
